Mesothelioma news
12/09/2008

Asbestos related death of ex-policeman on wedding day

A North Wales inquest heard this week that a former police officer had died from a mesothelioma-related condition on the day he was due to take part in a civil partnership ceremony.

The death was due to a deep-vein thrombosis (DVT), according to the pathologist, which was linked to immobility caused by his illness. He also noted that the man had had a relatively low level of asbestos, the substance that causes the fatal lung cancer, in his body at the time of death.

In the weeks before his death, the man had made a statement in which he tried to work out the source of his exposure to the deadly fibres. While it was possible that this may have occurred during his time as a naval officer, or through entering potentially dangerous houses while on the police force, the likeliest source was said to be the boilers of the locomotives he was exposed to through voluntary work on the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway.

The Deputy Coroner examining the case thus recorded an open verdict, saying that he could not earmark the man's mesothelioma as an industrial disease as the voluntary work on the railway had to be considered a hobby.